High school is filled with couples, like those over lovey dovey couples in the hallway that gross everyone out. But, it’s also filled to the brim with single people who have either never been in a relationship, or they have been broken up with or broken up with someone.

People have been broken up with millions of ways, but as of late, teens, and even some adults have found a new and easier way to “break up” with their partner: ghosting. Ghosting is when someone cuts off all communication with someone without explanation. People that want to get out of a relationship have taken up ghosting for its quick and easy results.  

Now, ghosting isn’t necessarily done with committed long term relationships. Ghosting usually happens when you have just been “talking” and getting to know someone for a few weeks to a couple months. Ghosters find themselves ghosting usually because they are afraid of confrontation. If you disappear from someone’s life completely, you will never have to deal with knowing someone is mad at you or being the bad guy.

When Tabi Stanec, a junior, was asked why she thinks ghosting is so popular she responded by saying “It’s popular because people are too afraid to commit to something.” She also explained that she had been ghosted before and it made her feel terrible, but eventually she got over it.

Personally, I have been ghosted before. One day you are texting or hanging out with someone and the next you don’t even smile at them at school. It’s usually pretty easy to see when you are going to be ghosted. They start texting you less often and stop making plans with you and then you never hang out with that person again. Mareesa Buskirk, a junior, explained that being ghosted makes you feel like you’re “just not good enough.”

Ghosting can even happen in friendships. I have personally ghosted someone in a friendship before, but I have also had a friend ghost me. Sometimes you outgrow friends, as you get older it happens, but sometimes you aren’t on the same page as your friend. Confronting them seems too difficult to do because you don’t want to hurt their feelings. You end up slowly distancing yourself from them because things don’t click like they used to and you don’t want to hurt them by fighting. Hanging out with them slowly becomes awkward, so you stop making plans with them.

Allexis Rolsted, a junior, explained why she thinks ghosting is done so easily, “ghosting is popular because its an easier way of telling someone you aren’t interested anymore, and it actually hurts a lot more than someone just being honest with you.”

Ghosting can be a blessing and a curse. For people that want an “easy” way out of relationships, it seems to be a blessing, but for people you are being ghosted, it’s more of a curse. Totally disappearing from someone’s life seems a little extreme just because you don’t want to deal with the confrontation. It also just leaves the person who is being ghosted confused, because now they never will know what happened. So, ghosting isn’t the ideal thing to do, but there is no doubt that it is constantly happening everywhere.